


Aftermath

by Spirit_catcher



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-03-27 06:44:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13875360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Spirit_catcher/pseuds/Spirit_catcher
Summary: Harry returns to The Burrow with the Weasley family after the Battle of Hogwarts.





	Aftermath

It was still in what many would call the aftermath stages of the Battle of Hogwarts. Harry, Ron, and Hermione had explained to McGonagall and Kingsley what they had been doing, and the task Dumbledore had left Harry. Harry had been a little taken aback by the depth yet undoubtful softness of the look his professor-turned-headmistress had given him, but not really surprised. The magnitude of the task and the fact that they had completed it – with him still here with them – had not quite sunk in yet.

Harry knew others would be told of what had happened, the lengths Voldemort had gone to, and why he and his friends had raced Voldemort to Hogwarts. While he didn’t want others blaming him or thinking that they had actually lead the Dark Lord there, he also didn’t want it widely known the details of the methods of dark magic that had been used. But Kingsley had assured him that they would only release what was necessary in order for the wizarding world to understand what had happened, not how to do it again. And Harry trusted the man – this was Kingsley, after all, not just anyone standing in as Minister for Magic.

Since then, the trio had helped where they could. Hogwarts needed a lot of attention, and there were so many dead to lay to rest. Fred had been taken home, and his funeral was tomorrow. Followed by a shared one for Tonks and Remus, and then too many other services for more people than Harry wished to count. It was a lot to dwell on, especially in the middle of the night in the dark bedroom of your best friend. 

It had been unarguable that Harry would return home with the Weasleys. He was grateful, and so exhausted and in need of shelter, yet he felt so burdened by the guilt he carried. He knew they had been told of at least some of what had happened, what he had been through, but he still felt a little uncomfortable that they still accepted him like another son so readily. He hadn’t been a horcrux, but he was still marked. And he had never felt more scarred than right then, alone in the dark with no sound besides Ron’s snores from the other bed in the room.

…

Mrs Weasley hadn't been sure how Harry was doing, or how the boy would ultimately get through this. He had been through so much, taken such burden and dealt with it like so many much older could not. And he had come through as still being the teenage boy she knew. He was different, yes, but he was still Harry. And she and Mr Weasley’s prime concern for him now was not letting the part of him they knew and loved slip away in the aftermath.

So when she took a midnight wandering – as she was becoming accustomed to these days – and couldn’t see Harry in his bed by her wandlight from where she stood in the doorway, she felt the panic and grief and the weight of everything rise again. Fighting it back, she checked for and found Ron asleep under his own bedcovers. Checking on her other children (and Hermione, who hadn’t left Harry and Ron yet to track down her parents) one by one, flooded with waves of relief as she found each. And she smiled softly when she found Harry lying next to Ginny, an arm over her as he held her through the bedcovers.

She covered him with over with another blanket before she left them. The nights were gradually warming up, but it really wasn’t warm enough to be sleeping in only a sweatshirt and jeans.


End file.
